Based on the best-selling book by Egon Erwin Kisch, this Czechoslovakian production tells the true story of one of the most flagrant turncoats in European history. A officer on the pre-WWI Austrian military staff, Colonel Redl has no qualms about accepting bribes from and passing secrets to the hated Russians. Playing both sides of the fence, Redl also accepts gratuities from his fellow Austrians to get the goods on "undesirables" from within. His justification? As a member of the "lower orders," Redl feels that he could never have cracked the aristocratic upper circles of the European military without resorting to treachery. The real Redl's homosexuality is not an issue in this film, though it certainly would be in Istvan Szabo's 1985 production Colonel Redl (not a remake of the 1931 film, but instead adapted from John Osborne's A Patriot for Me).
by Hal Erickson
synopsis
